Torrential Downpour Destroys Tents Housing Homeless Camp Fire Evacuees

CHICO, Calif. Heavy rainstorms on Thursday hit the same part of Northern California scorched three weeks ago by the Camp fire , flooding roads and drenching hundreds of people living in makeshift shelters since the Nov. 8 fire destroyed their town and homes.

For the over 100 evacuees of the fire whove essentially been living outdoors, the rains brought illness, loss of possessions and even further discomfort. Confronted with the downpour on Thursday, around 80 evacuees camping out in a Walmart parking lot in Chico tried to stay dry and save their few possessions. They used cases of water, inflated air mattresses and soggy sleeping bags to keep their tents from blowing away.

This doesnt do justice to how hard its raining but there are evacuation orders again and people at the Walmart encampment getting hypothermia. This is Mark, from Paradise, who found a guy with hypothermia and helped him get medical care. Red Cross was supposed to come Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/5OOJHEjK6I

Jenavieve Hatch (@jenavievehatch) November 29, 2018","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Jenavieve Hatch","author_url":"https://twitter.com/jenavievehatch","cache_age":86400,"description":"This doesnt do justice to how hard its raining but there are evacuation orders again and people at the Walmart encampment getting hypothermia. This is Mark, from Paradise, who found a guy with hypothermia and helped him get medical care. 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This doesnt do justice to how hard its raining but there are evacuation orders again and people at the Walmart encampment getting hypothermia. This is Mark, from Paradise, who found a guy with hypothermia and helped him get medical care. Red Cross was supposed to come Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/5OOJHEjK6I
Jenavieve Hatch (@jenavievehatch) November 29, 2018

Three volunteers from the neighboring Torres shelter went tent to tent, asking evacuees to consider moving to a nearby indoor shelter to stay dry. But many were hesitant to leave their tents. Some were still worried about cases of norovirus at the indoor shelters last week. Others feared the shelters wouldnt allow them to bring their pets. Some evacuees struggling with substance abuse argued that drug use is not permitted in indoor shelters.

The rain made the living situation even more difficult for people struggling the most in the aftermath of the fire, Mark Kinsey, a former Paradise resident sleeping in a tent on the vacant lot, told HuffPost, while passing out donated ready-to-eat meals to his neighbors in the middle of the rainstorm. Three weeks after the fires, many of the volunteers and service providers that swarmed the area in the wake of the disaster have already left. There are no more camera crews, no more food trucks or donors handing out $50 gift cards.